Eskdale

Why base here

Eskdale is the quietest of the six bases here, a long valley on the western side of the Lakes running inland from the coast at Ravenglass. Its main settlement, Boot, has no more than a handful of permanent residents, rising to a few dozen in summer, but the valley holds a Roman fort, a wooded gorge waterfall, and Harter Fell, plus an unusual way in: the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway, a narrow-gauge line that has run tourists and, before that, iron ore up the valley since the nineteenth century. It suits a slower week, built around one or two walks and a fair amount of quiet, rather than a base for covering ground fast.

On foot versus by car

Stanley Ghyll Force is a walk of a couple of miles from the car park at Trough House Bridge, on the same path as the valley’s riverside walk. Hardknott Roman Fort has its own small parking area right beside the site, with only a few minutes of uneven, sloping ground between the car and the ruins. Harter Fell is the exception: reaching its summit means a proper fell walk, usually starting from a layby on the Hardknott Pass road itself. Boot and the valley floor are otherwise flat and easy on foot; it is the fells and the passes on either side that demand more.

Practicalities

Ravenglass, on the Cumbrian Coast Line and served by Northern Trains, is the nearest mainline station, and from there the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway runs seven miles up the valley to Dalegarth, a 40-minute journey, without needing a car at either end. The railway’s own main season runs from March to October, with a further run of trains over Christmas and New Year; it is largely quiet in January. For the rest of the year, or for reaching Wasdale and the central fells, the road in crosses Hardknott and Wrynose passes from the east, both narrow, steep and best avoided by anyone nervous about single-track mountain driving.

With children

Eskdale’s advantage with young children is the railway, not the walking. The Ravenglass and Eskdale line runs seven miles up the valley to Dalegarth in about forty minutes, which turns getting to the valley into the day’s entertainment rather than a means to it, and needs no car at either end. Once there, Hardknott Roman Fort asks almost nothing of small legs: parking sits right beside the ruins, and the wall footings, bathhouse and parade ground give a child something to explore, even though the ground is too rough and uneven for a pushchair. Stanley Ghyll Force suits children who can already walk a couple of miles unaided. The path crosses the beck three times on wooden footbridges before a scramble up the bank to see the falls properly, and that last stretch wants a hand held rather than a child running ahead. Harter Fell, by contrast, is a fell day even with the head start of parking on Hardknott Pass itself, better saved for when the youngest can manage 267 metres of climbing alone.